How the Camp Lottery Works

Every child is placed in our lottery (staff and non-staff) in the order your child registered for camp and their name is placed onto a excel form broken into an event (Brownie, Junior, PAIT or PA).
We take all the names of the girls that have registered for a given event and place their number into a random number generator program.
The number generator randomly kicks out numbers. This is how we get which number is first in the lottery and all the way to the end of the number of girls.
Once we have the numbers for placement, we then add the girl’s name next to the number in this new order of the draw (for example, a girl’s original excel number may have been 1, but her number 1 wasn’t kicked out of the program until the 15th pull. Thus, the girl will be the 15th one to be placed into a unit). It also should be noted that each girl is an individual pull. This is an individual placement, not a family placement. Those with multiple girls registered may not have all of the girls placed in camp.
Once we have our lists for all the events in lottery order, we can then start placing the girls into units. NOTE: priority is given to the children of volunteers, because without our adult volunteers, we would not be able to have camp. The volunteers’ children are also subject to the lottery because if an volunteer drops out of camp, then the lottery number for his/her child will be used to determine that child’s attendance at camp. In other words, if that child had a lottery number that meant they would not be in camp, then that child cannot attend and we call the next girl on the waitlist to see if she would still like to come to camp.
The number of units that we can offer at camp is directly related to the number of adult volunteers that we have. We must stay within the safety regulations according to the Girl Scouts of USA and Columbia River Girl Scouts and cannot take more girls in a unit than what we are allowed to have with each adult at one time.
Once all the available units are filled, the girls that did not get placed will receive an e-mail informing them about the results. We will cancel their registration from our database and return the girl’s full camp fee. We cannot return the membership fee.
All girls that do not make the lottery cut will be placed on a waitlist. If, for some reason, we have a girl that cannot make it to camp, then we will use the waitlist and call the next girl in line for the slot. If you get that call, you will be asked to reregister and repay the camp fee.

Why Is the lottery needed?

The lottery might be needed for a couple of reason:

1.) The most common reason for having a lottery for the whole camp is due to the shortage of Adult Full-time Full-week help.
2.) We just have too many campers for the units - this is what happened to the PAs in 2006

*Please note that we have not had a full camp lottery in over a decade.

Why is my child in or out based on the lottery?

As a camp, we feel that this is the best way to give everyone an equal chance to come to camp during a registration period. We have decided to hold a lottery instead of placing campers on a first come bases. This way, we keep our camp registration open for a specific period of time and then close the camp and do our lottery (if needed). Each camper has an equal chance of getting into camp with a lottery.

Are staff campers exempt from the lottery?

NO. When we do the lottery, all the campers for a given event (Brownies, Juniors, PAIT's and PA's) are placed into the lottery. We do this because if a full time volunteer cannot fulfill their commitment, and they do not come to camp, we then look at how their child would have been placed in the lottery (we look at the lottery number as if the child did not have a volunteer). If that camper would not have been in camp because of the lottery draw, then the child cannot attend camp and we go to our waitlist and see if the next camper in that event is still interested in coming. We do this until we have found a camper that can come.

Why are the staff campers given priority into camp?

Staff campers are given priority because without the adult help, WE WOULD NOT HAVE A CAMP. Mountaindale West is run entirely by VOLUNTEERS. No parent would volunteer for camp if their child wasn't guaranteed a spot at camp. Plus, for each volunteer, 6-8 other campers without volunteers are able to come to camp.